President Biden issues an order on abortion treatment and patient privacy.
But it’s unclear how the FTC plans to act
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Friday urging government agencies to preserve abortion access and the online privacy of patients seeking reproductive healthcare.
The principal instructions of the order require the Department of Health and Human Services to increase access to emergency contraception and long-acting birth control devices like as IUDs. However, it also requests that HHS and the Federal Trade Commission take efforts to safeguard the sensitive health information of individuals seeking abortions and other reproductive care.
“We cannot accept an out-of-control Supreme Court, operating in tandem with radical elements of the Republican Party,” Biden stated before signing the order. “As a country, we must choose between the mainstream and the extremists.”
Soon after the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade last month, abortion rights groups and Democratic politicians warned that if the government gained access to sensitive health data, it may jeopardize the safety of abortion-seeking patients.
In a May letter, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) were among the first senators to push the FTC to protect reproductive health data. They demanded that the agency outline any efforts it was taking and any resources it would require to mitigate the dangers posed by the Supreme Court’s decision. Shortly after, in June, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) presented the Health and Location Protection Act, which would prohibit the selling of sensitive health and location-tracking data.
Axios originally reported last week on Biden’s plan to petition the FTC to take action on consumer privacy. Still, it’s unclear what steps the agency will take in response to Friday’s directive. Flo, a fertility-tracking app, settled with the agency in January 2021 after charges that it deceived customers about how their data was shared with marketing businesses and other digital corporations such as Facebook and Google.
While the decision asks the FTC to examine future measures on data privacy, it also directs HHS to provide new protections for sensitive information, such as those required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. Last week, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra directed the agency’s Office for Civil Rights to provide new advice on how the HIPAA Privacy Rule prevents healthcare providers from revealing private patient information to third parties or law enforcement.